“O wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel’s as other see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
And foolish notion.”
And plowman Burns was not a college man, but the above composition might lead us to believe that he was thoroughly familiar with modern college life.
Swarms of high school seniors, many of whom were leaders of their classes, are turned loose on the college campuses each year, and strange to say, many of them willingly exchange their individuality and personality for the privilege of being one of the crowd. They begin to follow the line of least resistance and fail to recognize the danger signs of the channel along which they are drifting.
Many young collegians who in high school had a goal which they were trying to reach and who worked to get the most out of their lessons and class work, come to college and flippantly discard any such ambition.
When for some reason it is necessary for a professor to be a few minutes late, practically everyone listened to the few who cry “let’s cut,” never asking themselves what is to be gained by the unthoughtful acts. It looks as though common sense would tell the majority that all classes that are missed must be made up sometime. A more disrespectful attitude and lack of breeding could not be exhibited than walking out of a class room when for some reason the professor has been detained.
At the cry of “Awful food” it seems that the majority would get up and leave a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Is it any wonder that the assertion has been made that the backbone of many college folk is nothing more than a mere string?
Editor’s Note: The student writing the lines from the Robert Burns poem was attempting to put it in Scottish dialect.
From page 2 of The Guilfordian, Oct. 27, 1926, the student newspaper of Guilford College published weekly by the Zatasian, Henry Clay, Philomathean, and Websterian Literary Societies.
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/2015236774/1926-10-27/ed-1/seq-2/
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